


0:00 (or, whirl goes to therapy again except this time rung goes to therapy)

by ApatheticRobots



Series: the good doctor, in the context of involving so-called 'doctors of divinity' [3]
Category: The Transformers (IDW Generation One), Transformers - All Media Types
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Character Study, Dialogue Heavy, Gen, Implied Relationships, Rung is a Good Doctor (in every sense of the phrase), Spoilers for the end of Lost Light, Therapy, Whirl is not a good doctor but he's trying his best
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-10
Updated: 2020-08-10
Packaged: 2021-03-05 22:26:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,863
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25802842
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ApatheticRobots/pseuds/ApatheticRobots
Summary: The clock sits at 0:00, and Rung is supposed to be dead.
Relationships: Rung & Whirl (Transformers)
Series: the good doctor, in the context of involving so-called 'doctors of divinity' [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1862869
Comments: 6
Kudos: 54





	0:00 (or, whirl goes to therapy again except this time rung goes to therapy)

**Author's Note:**

> don't have quite as good a grasp on rung's character as i do whirl's but. i think its Okay.
> 
> unbeta'd.

The silence in the office was deafening.

Normally, the office was silent because Whirl wasn’t willing to talk yet. Whirl wasn’t talking, which meant Rung wasn’t talking, and since the outside world was muted once the door shut, the only sound would be the ticking of the clock on the wall. 

This time, though, the office was silent because  _ Rung _ wasn’t talking.

It was weird, this whole situation. Beyond the fact that Whirl remembered not remembering Rung ever existed, beyond the fact that the stars outside seemed to be on a repetitive loop. That the clock seemed to change what time was being displayed every time Whirl glanced at it (currently, it was at 0:00.) That Rung was sitting at his desk, hands lightly clasped like they always were, staring at the surface with a guilty expression. He was supposed to be dead.

“C’mon, doc,” Whirl pressed, never as good at waiting as Rung was, “just talk to me. I’m not gonna attack you or anything.”

“I know that, Whirl,” Rung said softly. “I’m not worried about that.”

“Then  _ what? _ Why are you being so cagey? You were never exactly a blabbermouth before, sure, but you didn’t clam up quite this badly. I’m totally willing to say stuff but you’re not really giving me anything to bounce ideas off. Not even making those ‘hmm’ noises you do when you’re trying to make sure we know you’re listening.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Forgiven,” Whirl said with a wave of his claw, “now, why are--”

“No. I mean--” Rung sighed, taking his glasses off and setting them on the desk. He covered his face with his hands. “I’m sorry, Whirl. For leaving you like I did. Not giving you any warning about what the cost would be. I know you don’t cope well with people leaving you-- I never meant to hurt you.”

That silenced whatever Whirl had been about to say. On one claw, it was a  _ little _ annoying that Rung had gone and gotten himself kind of erased from existence without telling anyone it was gonna happen. But on the other-- “Forgiven for that too. Can we--”

“How??” 

“Wh--”

Rung slammed his hands on the table, his face twisted in an expression Whirl couldn’t read. “How can you just forgive me that easily? It’s as good as betrayal, what I did.”

A blank yellow optic met wavering teal ones. Then Whirl sighed, getting to his pedes, and walked over to Rung. He could see the smaller bot shaking where he sat. As he reached out, he heard an aborted inhale, that sharply cut into a noise of confusion as he lifted Rung around the middle and moved back over to set him down on the sofa. “Right,” Whirl said, “you’re clearly in no shape to be listening to any of my problems. So--”

He sat down behind the desk, looking over at a bewildered Rung.

“I’m going to listen to yours.”

“Whirl…”

“What? Don’t say my name like that, you’re saying it in a way and I don’t like it. This is a good idea. C’mon, doc, we’re friends.” His optic scrunched up in a smile. “You can talk to me.”

“It’s not that I don’t trust you--”

“Then what is it? You’re my friend, I wanna help you. Therapy for the therapist.”

He smiled sadly. “You’re not exactly a licensed doctor, Whirl. Your intentions are good. But I don’t think you have the qualifications.”

Whirl clamped down on his vocalizer to stop from saying something along the lines of  _ and you do? _ He’d never seen a certificate of any kind. Rung was good at getting people to tell him things, and helping them draw conclusions about themselves, but Whirl had no proof he’d ever actually gone to any kind of schooling for psychology.

“Qualifications, shmalifications.” He leaned over the desk like he’d seen Rung do a hundred times, bracing himself on his claws. “I’m serious, Rung. I wanna help. So tell me what the problem is.”

“You shouldn’t push the patient to speak about anything, that’s more likely to make them closed off and distrusting.”

“ _ Rung.” _

“Sorry.” Rung sighed. “I’m not-- used to this. Speaking, and being listened to. Not in a meaningful way. Even by my patients, many of them dismissed my help, came to conclusions on how to approach a situation on their own. You’re one of the few who actually took my advice to spark.” He leaned back against the sofa. He’d left his glasses on the desk, and clearly wasn’t inclined to get up and get them again, so Whirl could see his downcast optics clearly. “I’m not accustomed to being on the other end of this.”

“Have you ever actually gone to see a therapist of your own?”

Rung just shook his head silently.

Whirl would be frowning if he could. “That’s not good. You’re old as scrap, doc, and you haven’t talked to anyone that  _ whole _ time?”

“I did forget a large majority of the terrible things that happened to me.”

“After that, though, there was a really long time when you were lonely as hell, right? Why didn’t you talk to anyone then?”

“Why would I?” Rung said with a shrug. “There was a good chance any doctor I saw would just forget about me and what we discussed by the time the next appointment rolled around. There was only so much that could be done in the span of an hour.”

“And before--” Whirl went silent.

Ah, yes, the elephant in the room. The whole ‘Primus’ thing hanging from the roof of the office over their heads. There were some things Whirl wasn’t quite willing to touch with a ten foot pole. Maybe they’d get there, eventually, but right now he kind of wanted to pretend Rung wasn’t literally God.

“Right,” Rung’s voice was weak, “before.”

“So how does that even--”

“I don’t know how it works.”

“You’re supposed to be--”

“Omnipotent? Hardly.”

Whirl narrowed his optic. “You can certainly predict what I’m gonna say.”

“That’s not owing to any supernatural power, Whirl,” that got him a weary smile, “I just know you very well. It’s not hard to guess.”

Silence reigned once more. A glance at the clock revealed the time to be 13:72. He checked it a moment later, and they’d jumped to 7:30. At least they weren’t exactly on a time limit this time around. They were, because eventually Whirl would wake from recharge, but he slept for a lot longer than their sessions lasted.

“You really didn’t know? The whole time?”

“I did not. I had… flashes, of sorts, scraps of memories floating around. Like a very bad case of deja vu. I’d see a person, or a place, and I would  _ know _ them, but I’d have no idea where from. It would be gone a moment later.”

“Did these happen often?”

“Not particularly. There weren’t a great many things we came across that existed so long ago.” His expression turned somber. “It is a shame neither I nor Censere remembered the truth about our collective identities before his demise. I would have liked to reconnect with an old friend.”

“Doc. You’re dead too. Just meet up with him in the All-Spark or whatever.”

Rung gave him a Look™.

“What?!”

He just shook his head. “It was lovely talking with you again, Whirl. And I hope you can honestly forgive me for keeping the truth hidden from you.”

“Yeah, sure. Water under the bridge.”

Laughing softly, Rung stood, going over to the desk so he could pick up his glasses, clean them off, and put them back on. He tilted his head and smiled at Whirl. “I do miss you. All of you. I hope everyone’s coping alright in my absence. And that the lessons I imparted onto the crew were not lost with me.”

  
“We’re coping. And-- I don’t think so. We’re all still pretty functional, about as much as we were before you kicked it. Did you see what we did?”

“What do you mean?”

“With the copying thing. Remember how we messed up the first launch and made another Lost Light? We did it again, on purpose this time, ‘cause none of us really wanted to go back to Cybertron but if we didn’t Prowl would hunt us down and have our processors mounted. So we made another Lost Light. We’re all pretty sure it worked, considering the navigation computer never seems to know where the hell we are when we check it.”

“That’s ingenious. And you’re all getting along? Not getting into too many spats being trapped in a confined space together?”

“Nah. There’s arguments, of course, but there always were. Who knew all it took was some life or death experiences to get folks to like each other?” Considering how many life or death experiences the crew’d had, they probably should’ve seen it coming. “We’re okay. I’ve got friends.”

  
“That’s… good.”

Whirl didn’t miss the trepidation in Rung’s voice. He prompted the therapist with a tilt of his head.

“Well--” Rung sighed. “I suppose it… Some selfish part of me is… disappointed to hear that you’re doing fine without me. I know it is ridiculous, but it makes me feel as though you never needed me there in the first place. I’m sorry.”

“Woah, hey, first of all, don’t apologize. If I’m not allowed to apologize for my feelings, neither are you. Second,” He reached over the desk and grabbed Rung’s hands in his claws. He ignored Rung’s look of surprise. “Second, we are  _ definitely _ feeling your absence. You helped us a lot, doc. Just because we got a happy ending doesn’t mean everyone’s trauma is just gone. We all almost died. A lot. We definitely needed you, and we still do.”

Pause. “Oh, but don’t feel bad for not being there, you did what you needed to do to save the universe and we don’t blame you, etcetera etcetera.”

Rung laughed, and Whirl’s optic raised in a grin. Mission success.

“Perhaps you have been listening to me all this time.” He pulled one hand away so he could rest it on the side of Whirl’s head. “Thank you, Whirl. Your friendship meant more to me than you know. And I miss you.”

“Ah, y’know.” He’d deny it if asked, but he definitely leaned into the contact. “Feeling’s mutual and all that.”

Rung smiled. The clock struck 0:00. 

Whirl blinked a couple times and looked up at the blank ceiling of his habsuite. The berth was empty save for himself-- he’d recharged late. Nice of them to let him lay around for so long. He’d been having a good dream, though he couldn’t quite remember what the contents had been. Or why the half-eaten box of rust sticks that Tailgate had left on the desk sent an unfamiliar pang through his spark.

Weird. But probably nothing out of the ordinary. It was just a dream, after all.

He squinted at the alarm clock sitting on the table behind the berth. It must have gotten reset at some point-- the numbers were blinking and set to 0:00. 

He’d have to fix that later.


End file.
